Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace
by Unoriginality
Summary: 50 1sentences, Roy-centric, from Ishbal to Conqueror of Shamballa.


_01 - Walking_

Roy's driving skills were highly in question; when he was on his own, he had to rely on walking to get him where he wanted to go.

_02 - Waltz_

Roy went out of his way to learn how to waltz for those ritzy military balls that featured plenty of higher ups for him to look for allies amongst; Riza had taught him and had enough grace to not laugh at his bumbling early attempts at following her steps.

_03 - Wishes_

Roy had outgrown wishing up on stars when he was ten, but somehow, he couldn't help casting out his hopes and dreams to the cosmos whenever he saw a falling star.

_04 - Wonder_

Edward was a handful and a half on his own, with his brother he was twice the trouble- it often led to Roy wondering when his first gray hair was going to show up; he expected it any day.

_05 - Worry_

Roy worried far more than was healthy about the Elric brothers, where they were and what they were doing; they could take care of themselves on many levels, but they were still children, in dangerous positions that Roy himself put them in, and he felt it his duty to try to take care of them.

_06 - Whimsy_

Some days his goals seemed like pure fantasy, a daydream that would never come true; no matter how impossible, Roy would not stop reaching for the top.

_07 - Waste/Wasteland_

The East district felt like a wasteland, where ambitions went to die and hope of getting out was drowned in the perpetual rain of the rainy season.

_08 - Whiskey and rum_

Roy liked whiskey and Riza liked rum; it made for an interesting evening when they would stop and have drinks at the officer's club together.

_09 - War_

The Ishbalan war had left its marks on Roy, emotional scars that would not heal as he was haunted every night by the voices of the doctors begging to be spared for the sake of their daughter just before he pulled the trigger.

_10 - Weddings_

Roy didn't care much for weddings, but he'd promised Hughes and agreed to be his friend's best man; he had to admit later that the whole affair was a nice one, and maybe, just maybe, he might have one of his own some year down the line.

_11 - Birthday_

Riza didn't like having it remembered, but Roy was insistent upon giving her a gift for her birthday every year, whether she liked it or not.

_12 - Blessing_

Roy didn't believe in any higher power, but there were days where he had to admit that if there was a god, then his men were his blessings from the deity.

_13 - Bias_

Roy was careful not to show a bias amongst his subordinates for fear of discovery- discovery of his greatest weakness, both for their safety and for their jobs; fraternizing was strictly forbidden.

_14 - Burning_

The smell of flesh burning and blood boiling would never leave Roy's memory, no matter how many glasses of whiskey he tried to chase it away with.

_15 - Breathing_

Roy had passed along to the Elric brothers the creed he learned in Ishbal- keep moving forward; keep breathing and keep moving forward, that was the only way to survive something that hurt so much as what they found in that dark and rainy alley.

_16 - Breaking_

Edward pushed Roy's patience to the breaking point often; Roy paid him back in short jokes.

_17 - Belief_

The Ishbalans held a belief in the divine, and watching the destruction in their homeland, destruction he was helping to do, Roy wondered how they could believe in any god at all, much less a loving and merciful one; what kind of merciful god would let this happen to his people?

_18 - Balloon_

The pictures that had come back from their spy balloon had frightened Edward and that alone had twisted up Roy's gut with fear- the elder Elric brother rarely showed fear and whenever he did, Roy knew it was bad.

_19 - Balcony_

Roy hated these military balls- they were tedious and he inevitably hated his date for the evening; retreating to the balcony for a smoke he didn't want was the only freedom he got.

20 - Bane

Rain was the bane of Roy's existence; it figured, somehow, that it always chose to rain on the days the Elric brothers needed him the most.

_21 - Quiet_

Their kisses were stolen in quiet moments, when nobody would find out or see them and report them for fraternization; Roy hated that he couldn't court her openly, but that was just one small part of the many prices they were paying for his goals.

_22 - Quirks_

Every one of Roy's men had their quirks- Fuery was shy, Falman sounded like an encyclopedia, Havoc couldn't get a date to save his life and Breda thought dogs would eat him or something- but none of them were quite as 'quirky' as Riza's sense of humor.

_23 - Question_

Hughes's death had left Roy with nothing but questions and no answers.

_24 - Quarrel_

On the rare occasion Roy and Riza would quarrel, it left the others feeling vaguely like children caught between arguing parents.

_25 - Quitting_

Roy always gave them each the opportunity to quit, to get out while they still could, and none of them ever did, choosing to remain under his command.

_26 - Jump_

They all sometimes questioned his sanity and his reasoning in the privacy of their own minds, but none of them ever disobeyed an order that came from Roy; they trusted his reasons were for the best, so when he said jump, the only thing they asked was 'how high?'

_27 - Jester_

If Roy was the king, and Riza the hidden queen, Hughes had to be their jester with his incessant cheerfulness and his endless supply of pictures of his wife and daughter.

_28 - Jousting_

Chess with the lieutenant general was always an interesting experience, a joust of wits and strategy; Roy usually lost, but the first time he won, the general gave him the chess set in reward.

_29 - Jewel_

Riza's eyes looked like amber, more beautiful than any jewel in the world to him.

_30 - Just_

Roy seriously considered suicide after the deaths of the Rockbell doctors, but Marcoh convinced him that there'd be no justice in it; it was the military that pulled that trigger, Roy was just the weapon.

_31 - Smirk_

Roy had his smirk down to an art; he drove everyone crazy with it, because it frequently meant he was up to nothing good.

_32 - Sorrow_

When Roy left for the North, he left behind him nothing but lies and sorrow.

_33 - Stupidity_

When Roy found out that Edward had died, he cursed his own stupidity for not following the boy down to the underground city like his first instinct to do was.

_34 - Serenade_

Maes had jokingly told him that if Roy wanted to chase off an unwelcome suitor, he could always serenade the woman; Roy had threatened to set his shorts on fire for that.

_35 - Sarcasm_

Nearly everything Edward said to him was sarcastic, and it grated on Roy's last nerve, trying to handle that boy sometimes.

_36 - Sordid_

Roy smoothly lied to the judging counsel, absolving his friends of guilt from the whole sordid affair of Bradley's death and putting all the blame on his own shoulders.

_37 - Soliloquy_

Roy gave himself one last pep talk as he waited in the shadows outside Bradley's house, one final soliloquy of encouragement that he could do this, that it didn't matter what happened to him, as long as Bradley was taken down.

_38 - Sojourn_

He saw the time out at East Headquarters as a temporary stay- a temporary stay that lasted four damn long years too many.

_39 - Share_

There was very little that Roy didn't share with Hughes, although the desire to have children wasn't one of those things; and then along came the Elric boys and Roy found himself suddenly saddled with children he hadn't wanted while his friend laughed at him for it.

_40 - Solitary_

Roy shipped North after Edward's death and Bradley's defeat; he considered it his solitary confinement for failing his friends so spectacularly.

_41 - Nowhere_

When Roy and Riza were finally reunited, Roy realized there really was nowhere he'd rather be than with her; he retired from the military and finally proposed.

_42 - Neutral_

Whenever Roy and Edward argued, Riza and Alphonse took the neutral stance, only getting involved to separate the men into their own corners before someone- or something- blew up.

_43 - Nuance_

There were many subtle nuances to the language Roy spoke with Riza and his men; everything was kept hidden between the lines and in double-meanings.

_44 - Near_

Roy hated the transfer to East Headquarters, swept under the rug and forgotten, but one of the hardest parts was not being near to his best friend anymore.

_45 - Natural_

Roy loved the fact that Riza was a natural blond; she didn't break poker face easily, but it was so much fun making her blush, and her fair coloration worked in his favor.

_46 - Horizon_

Roy thought in the long term, making moves that would benefit him far off on the horizon.

_47 - Valiant_

Roy never thought of himself as valiant, not after the way his hands were bloodstained by Ishbal, but that never stopped him from coming to the rescue for those he cared about when he could.

_48 - Virtuous_

Roy was painted as a lady's man, but the real truth was that while he was far from virtuous, he was also just as far from the womanizer he built up a reputation as.

_49 - Victory_

Roy's victory against Bradley had nearly cost him his life; when Riza dropped out of his command shortly after his recovery and they discovered Edward had died, he felt it had been more costly than if he _had_ died.

_50 - Defeat_

The ultimate defeat for Roy was the day they buried young Edward Elric; he'd saved the country, but at the cost of his best friend and the closest thing to a son he'd ever have.


End file.
